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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Pipeline: The Jazz @ Florida Avenue

Last week while walking down Florida Avenue east of Ninth Street, a friend asked me about the development plans for the three WMATA parcels. Last I heard, WMATA selected Banneker Ventures LLC, Metropolis Development Company, LLC, and District Development Group, LLC to develop the parcels.

Coincidentally, the day after my friend asked me about the parcels, I saw this Washington Business Journal article about developers of affordable housing projects seeking a portion of the $33.7 million that the city will receive in federal stimulus money from the Treasury Department. The article names a handful of developers seeking funding and the projects for which the funding is sought. The WMATA Florida Avenue project is one of the projects listed and, for the first time, I learned the name of the project: The Jazz @ Florida Avenue. The article states that Banneker Ventures LLC and Bank of America CDC are the parties seeking funds on behalf of The Jazz @ Florida Avenue.

I did a little more digging and found a few additional details about the project. In conjunction with the application for stimulus funds, the developers submitted this Project Narrative (PDF). It is 14 pages long, so I'll just share a few of the sound bytes most interesting to me:

The Project will include three adjacent buildings, featuring a total of 124 apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground floor retail. The Project will also feature one level of below-grade parking in each building, containing a total of 61 parking spaces, as well as public plazas fronting 8th and 9th Streets, NW and Florida Avenue, NW. The development will be a mixed-income project where at least 20% of the total residential units will be affordable at 50% of area median income. . . . The unique floor plans and stylistic finishes include 9 foot ceilings, in-unit laundry, granite countertops, and ceramic kitchen tiles.

. . . .

The Project will entail three newly constructed buildings, each including residential apartment units and retail space. A graceful sequence of new distinct glass and brick buildings will give a rich and varied texture to the 7th Street/Florida Avenue/U Street urban fabric. Each of the buildings will have four stories of residential units. . . . Each building will have private residential courtyards located over the retail which will provide enjoyable outdoor recreation space for the residents. . . . The retail space, consisting of 20,000 total square feet, will be spread out on the ground floor of each building.

. . . .

Torti Gallas and Partners are the architects of the project. According to the application for funding (available here in PDF), Construction should start in May 2010.